Empire of the Phoenix
by IgNighted
Summary: Every man has his story, his journey, his destiny. Cao Pi was born to achieve greatness but fate isn't always kind to those who defy it. Following in the footsteps of his might father across a world at war in the wake of a crumbling dynasty, Cao Pi must navigate his way through the painful trials life has in store for him, and like a phoenix, rise and conquer the Three Kingdoms.


**Disclaimer: I do not own Dynasty Warriors**

* * *

Prologue: Born from the Ashes

There was a storm. Roaring and raging in the dark oppressive night and it did nothing to help calm Cao Cao's nerves. Down the hall a woman screamed, a long drawn out, ear-piercing shriek, causing discomfort to the man sitting to Cao Cao's left.

"Dammit to hell, I can't imagine going through that." It was Xiahou Yuan who had spoken, Cao Cao's cousin and trusted general. "I've killed dozens of men and I'll likely kill dozens more, but yanking a little guy out of a woman's womb, smacking his head and wiping his snot out of his nose and mouth… no thank you."

"Beautifully put, as always Yuan," Xiahou Dun said derisively. He was sitting to Cao Cao's right as the three men drank and waited for the end result of this long, tiresome night. Though, armed with the knowledge of what was happening just a few rooms down took the edge off of the three men's appetite.

Cao Cao was resigned to wait, to contemplate and let horrible, nasty thoughts enter his head as his wife underwent nature's torture to birth him his son. He wasn't the kind of man who went to pieces in such situations, nor the kind to have much of a sentimental feel for such occasions, but in this case sleep was out of the question, not with his wife screaming her lungs raw and he couldn't leave, not with rain falling with reckless abandon or lighting crashing through the clouds like his cavalry upon Yellow Turbans. No, he had to wait; he had to remain resolute and calm in the wake of his wife's labour and the summer tempest raging outside.

A priest, or a monk rather, from the locality had come to preside over the situation, though he spent most of his time shuddering and muttering to himself, ranting about one thing or the other.

"You know what he's suggested don't you? You made a decision yet?" It was Xiahou Dun who had spoken, interrupting Cao Cao's thoughts and his temporary state of calm.

"If what he's predicted is true then I must act," Cao Cao replied evenly.

"Hold on, you aren't seriously thinking of doing what he says, are you?" Xiahou Yuan burst into the conversation, looking scandalized. "He's your son! You can't forsake that, no matter what that crackpot says! His mind is probably addled with some of those inhalants and chemicals from the local villages."

"You've never put much stock into the Heaven's will Yuan, but I always have. It does not do you know, to tempt fate."

"But killing him? He's a child! Your child in fact!" Xiahou Yuan protested hotly.

"I'm aware of what he is, but what he might become is what worries me. We've selected and heard the words of the most reliable mystic in the capital, the man who presided over his Imperial Majesty Emperor Ling's birth and death," Cao Cao said calmly. Though inside he reflected, he did not feel calm at all. His mind was in a messy state and he rather reproached Xiahou Dun brining this subject up.

"Simplest way to clear things up would be to kill him," Dun said as his cousin's wife gave another scream down the hall. "Her labour is taking unnaturally long; another sign perhaps?"

"I didn't think you two were stupid enough to take the words of some old fart so seriously," Yuan said, interrupting Cao Cao before he could reply. "Killing babies ain't part of my repertoire so I'm getting the hell out of here."

"It's raining pretty heavy. A big guy like you might get hit by lighting if you take the mountains paths down to the village."

"Shut your trap Dun," Yuan grunted out, colour rising to his cheeks at his brother's barb. "I'm not sticking around for this, I'm getting something to drink and then I'm going to find more pleasant company than you two crows." And with that, he left the room, taking the last bottle of rice wine with him. Cao Cao could hear him lumbering down the halls, his footsteps heavy and echoing along with the heavy rain outside. The sky suddenly roared as thunder crashed through the heavens. Cao Cao sighed and closed his eyes.

"Bad weather, bad omens, and bad news all at once. Not quite my day is it?" Cao Cao said wearily, his face in his hands and his elbows imposing themselves upon the table.

"You can handle it, you've handled bigger things, worse things, and more dangerous things, and certainly presided over more horrible things" Dun said sympathetically.

"But never anything so personal," Cao Cao said in response. He was feeling tired, the sort of weariness that encroached upon a man when there was nothing to be done and yet somehow everything left to decide.

"Cao Ang and Cao Shuo are two fine young men, strong and brave, good looking, and from good birth. Through their mother they're related to the Imperial court," Dun said quietly. Cao Cao frowned at this.

"What would you have me do Dun? What would you do if this was your son and your situation?"

"It's not my son and it's not my situation. You're my lord and you're the man I've decided to follow for the rest of my life," Dun said, with a small, sad grin. "I know what you want to do, but I think I know what you will do instead."

"You know my mind better than anyone else, I imagine you've preempted what I intend already," Cao Cao said, casting his fellow a wary glance.

"Killing a child isn't you, it's not what you're like and, no offence, you don't exactly have the stomach for it," Dun said casually.

"And what of it? I don't take pride in such a thing, and I never would and never will," his cousin replied, a certain anger in his tone. Xiahou Dun spread his hands and gave his lord cousins a smile.

"So you've resolved to let him live then?"

"Bian Shi would never forgive me if I killed him, not after what she's been through carrying him and him being her first child," Cao Cao responded.

"She's the only other person who knows your mind and could talk you down, better than your other two wives certainly, almost as much as me in fact," his cousin said with a grin. Cao Cao found himself returning it with a rueful one of his own.

"When I rescued her from that brothel I knew that she would be my equal, the only perhaps, among women who could really understand me. I don't regret saving her, though I regret that she has such power over me," Cao Cao said ruefully.

"But that's not the only reason you'll spare him I trust?"

Cao Cao didn't answer his cousin, because just then one of the maids had entered the room. She immediately kneeled and bowed her head, speaking to her lord in hushed tones.

"The young master is born my lord. Your lady wife is very tired but the physicians have indicated that she is doing well."

Cao Cao was aware of crying down the hallway, the crying and wailing of an infant. Rising to his feet, he dismissed the maid with a flick of his hand and entered the hallway. It was still raining outside, the storm was still raging loudly, but Cao Cao could barely register it, the cries of his son almost hypnotizing him as he walked down the hall in a trance. Despite himself, Xiahou Yuan had peeked his head out from one of the rooms further down and was cautiously walking down the hall alongside him.

Cao Cao entered the room his wife had just endured her painful labour in. She was lying on the large bed in the room, sweat pouring off of her forehead, the blankets around her damp, and some of them slightly blooded. Cao Cao looked down upon her, and gave her a slight smile, though she was in a deep sleep and thus could not see it. Even in her worst and most painful and stressful of times she was beautiful. He risked the anger of his father and every man in the Langye commandery when he took her as his wife, plucking her from her poor family and her job as a courtesan, yet at that moment he knew that all the troubles he had endured for her had been worth it.

However, the subject of his mind's worry diverted his attention from his wife, as he finally laid eyes on his son for the first time. His and Bian Shi's son, his first with her, and his third overall. Cao Cao found himself in a state of confusion. He hadn't felt this way about his two other son's birth, hadn't worked himself into such a state of anxiety or worry during their births nor felt such a connection with them as he did for his currently unnamed child born in the wake of a storm.

The physician holding him brought the small, crying bundle before Cao Cao and carefully rested him in his father's waiting arms. Cao Cao looked down upon his child and studied his features. His hair colour, a dull, dark shade of brown was definitely from his mother, but the rest was all Cao Cao. In fact the uncanny likeness even unnerved the lord, as he looked down on the young child that bore his heavy resemblance. His mouth, his nose, his ears, the contours of his face mirrored his father's, his cheekbones and jaw, all of it made him almost a perfect copy of what Cao Cao looked as a young child, and a young boy.

"He has his mother's hair, but he's all me. He'll grow up to be a handsome man," Cao Cao said quietly, somewhat unconsciously, not even paying any mind to the physicians next to him. The child in his arms squirmed, as if agreeing with his father's words. He had fallen silent, Cao Cao noticed. He looked up at the physicians questioningly.

"The young master is very young and very weak my lord. His lungs are underdeveloped and his crying his exhausted them and himself. It's a form of illness that's uncommon these days, but it could prove to be fatal," the physician said in response to his lord's look.

Cao Cao looked horrified. He distantly remembered his wife, the child's mother, Bian Shi mentioning that she too was once ailed as a child by a lung condition. Cao Cao hadn't paid it much mind; Bian Shi was very healthy, and very active. Her former profession demanded that she be energetic and durable, something Cao Cao had taken great pleasure in putting to the test time and time again. Those 'tests' resulted in the birth of the son he held in his arms.

"We can treat him with some rather reliable methods, inhalants and herbal treatments and the like. They'll calm him and sooth his lungs until he reaches boyhood, whereupon he will outgrow the condition and will live a regular, healthy life." The physician had continued to speak at his lord's silence. "However, if we do not treat him he will not survive the night. He will die by dawn tomorrow morning, quietly."

The physician's words had a hidden meaning, Cao Cao noticed with a dark glare. People were superstitious and held great faith and belief in the words of priests and mystics who conveyed the fortune and the lives of those they met. People rarely questioned them, especially the wealthy great lords who did not desire to leave things in fate's hands, not when they could do something to change it themselves. Cao Cao was not a great lord, but he knew that he would be one day. He had dreams and aspirations, he had a vision, and he had ambition. What the priest had told him had disturbed him. A child that could wreck the very future of him family, that could destroy what Cao Cao was seeking to build. He could leave the child to do, let this condition run its course on this infant and kill him quietly as the physician had said. He could tell his wife that the child died in the night, for she was sleeping after an exhaustive labour and thus would never know. It was a perfect situation for him to defy what fate had in store for him.

But then he looked down upon his son once again, and Cao Cao looked over the child's frail form, which had been previously covered with a cloth. The infant was small and thin, and Cao Cao could see that his chest was bruised already. But then Cao Cao heard gasping, from the child he held. The child was fighting to breath, choking, gasping, heaving, wheezing, and coughing but breathing nonetheless, fighting to keep his little chest working and moving. The child had opened his eyes Cao Cao noticed, and he was struck by what he saw in his son's eyes.

_Is that, determination? _

It struck Cao Cao as something incredible, as something shocking and mesmerizing. His son was fighting to breath, fighting to stay alive with a ferocious determination. Cao Cao felt his heartbreak and his resolve crumble. This was his son, through and through. He could not abandon him, not when he needed him most, not after seeing such furious resolve in the eyes of one so young.

"Begin the treatment," was all Cao Cao managed to say. The physicians looked at him questioningly, but they did not disobey, taking the child and immediately preparing a unique form of treatment.

Cao Cao was aware of his two cousins watching him at the doorway, though he did not turn to see Yuan's beaming expression, his face lit up with satisfaction and joy, nor Dun's exasperated smile. Cao Cao simply watched his son, and the physicians, as they administered their medicine. His son's breaths began to steady, seeming less forceful and painful, and soon his child began to sleep naturally and normally, with gentle breaths. Cao Cao strode over to his bed and looked down upon his child once more, swaddled with blankets and sleeping contentedly.

"Today marks a change in my destiny, and in yours little one. Whatever happens from now though, I will have no time for regrets. You will live on my son and be strong and proud. From now on you will be my young Cao Pi."

* * *

_Well, this is chapter one of my new story. It's been a while, a year and half I believe since my last update and I do apologize for that. My previous story I rather lost direction of. I had it planned out but then I decided to take a break from writing on here and when I came back to it I realized how convoluted, dry, and self-satisfying it was. It wasn't much of a story, just a vanity project I decided to put into words. This new story though will be much better written than my previous one and hopefully better received. _

_Bian Shi is more commonly and simply known as Lady Bian. Bian Shi isn't officially her real name but quite a few historical documents have labelled her under the name. _

_It was very common to consult mystics and priests about the fortune and fate of those born or those reaching a certain age in their lives. I've deliberately withheld what exactly the mystic said of little baby Cao Pi, but from what you can infer, it's nothing good. _


End file.
